web server with other files

[malibu65k]

I'm new at this. I want to set up a server. I want to put all my pictures, graphics and music files on it so that all my family members can access them. I will use it to share between 6 computers I have in my home. I also want to put Apache on it because I want to also do webpages and host them myself. I may also want to play around with cold fusion and databases. Is any of this possible on 1 unit? I need to know what to buy to do this. If anyone knows of any good resources on the net to help with this or if anyone has any information that will help me, I would really be grateful.

This is the information of the unit I'm looking at, but I'm not sure if this is what I need or if this is even the right thing.


Western Digital NetCenter 320GB External Ethernet and USB 2.0 Network Hard Drive

Model: WDXE3200JBN



This external hard drive with networking capabilities allows multiple computers to share files, back up files from any computer on the network, and even share a single printer. This drive is an easy storage and printer solution in one simple package

 

[RhythmAce]

Depending on your OS, you will want a good LAMP or WAMP package. These packages configure apache, MySQL and php to run on your system. If you run linux, chances are you already have all of these installed. If you run Windows, I'm sure there are quite a few people here who are more than willing to set you wise on a good package. Worse case is you'll have to google for it. I strongly suggest buy your own domain name from a registrar like godaddy. They only cost about $9.00 a year and make it a lot easier to access your server from the web than passing out your ip address. If your isp blocks port 80 or assigns you a dydnamic ip, you will need to use a pointer service like dyndns. These services poll your system for the current ip address and update their servers so they will point your domain name to that current address. If you don't want your own domain name, the pointer service will let you have a sub-domain for free. It will look something like yourdomain.dyndns.com. I think the most important thing to consider is your connection speed. Some providers throttle the upstream bandwidth so it will take a while for pages to appear on the visitors browser. If this is the case, try to keep your pages as simple as possible. Remember, outsiders will not see pages as fast as people on your network. If you have any more questions there are a lot of people here who have just gone through what you are looking forward to. There's a couple of seasoned pros too and we're all eager to help. Good luck and have fun.

 

[malibu65k]

Thanks so much for the input RhythmAce. This helps.


I will be using Windows XP. Can it be either Home or Professional? I am interested in all three - apache, MySQL and php. Is the above unit I listed something I could use for this?

 

[RhythmAce]

If your system is configured to use these devices, then it would be my guess that apache will be able to access them. The reason I say 'guess' is because I'm not the best person to ask about setting up a Windows based server. I've been able to setup an emergancy server with WAMP5 and mailenable as my mail server. The Standard Version of this software used to be free but it's been a while for me so I'm not sure on that either. I ran all this along with an ftp server running XP Home. I wasn't too impressed because it seemed to want to reboot every now and again. I the server world, that can be somewhat undesirable. XP Pro may be a better choice if you happen to have one of those laying around.